A Future Forsaken
By Emily Jennings
Summery: Max left in Departure with Isabel & Tess, who didn't kill Alex. 20 years later & the world has changed. Antar & Earth have formed an alliance & 'aliens' are a thing of faerie tales. Can Max & Liz truly forsake their love now that the ultimate boundary has been diminished?
Author's note: Hi guys! Thank you so much for your support and reviews, you have no idea how much they mean to me! Finally we can wind down this whole message thing and move on with the story! Phew! 80)
Read, review and enjoy! X
The hologram wobbled to life, cracking uncertainly and fragmenting the precious Technicolor images, causing a static in the room that made the hairs on Max's arms to stand on end.
It was this peculiar sensation of something other that made the King raise his tear stained face from his hands and cast his despairing and confused eyes around the room.
Looking back, Max would later admit that had he been in his proper mind he would have perhaps appreciated this odd stillness, the momentary pause, which marked the transition from the utter misery and grief of his life to the total destruction of it. He may also have acknowledged that some part of his brain, the small, strange part that always managed to stay calm and rational, no matter how irrational the rest of his self became, was silently telling him that this was the breakthrough he'd been waiting for and that nothing would ever be the same again.
But he wasn't in his proper mind and none of these things did occur to him.
Max looked around and absently noted the scattered papers and disheveled furniture, seeking the cause of this strangeness. He did not, at first, see the small hexagonal disc, nor the hologram that now played, like a old home video, protruding from the so-called 'corrupted' imprints on the shiny mental. What he first noticed was his ring.
Max was used to the searing white-purple light that shone like a beacon each time he activated the ring, but now it pulsed with a soft consistency, emitting a soft hum, causing the baffled King to stare blankly in incomprehension at it.
The little, rational part of him began to gain ground on his largely irrational self.
Had the exercise worked despite his obvious loss of control? Had he somehow tapped into an unknown power within the ring, and to what purpose?
Suddenly Max heard something that made his entire body convulse ...
... 'I could see from the veranda' Liz's voice was light and warm, full of love and understanding.
Max spun and noticed the hologram for the first time. Liz looked so beautiful; ethereal and slight, yet still possessing an obvious inner strength and passion. Her eyes still burned with a deep un-relinquishing fire, her complexion was still a picture of utter loveliness.
He watched as she moved forward and suddenly another person stood by her; a child, a little girl with long chestnut hair. Liz played with a feather she'd taken from the girl's hair.
'I thought you looked very witchy and Trouble looked very silly.' she said, obviously amused.
Max choked. Was this Liz's little girl? Could it be that he was somehow seeing the life that Liz had made for herself ... without him?
The small girl chuckled and nodded, flicking her hair back in a manner that was so much like Liz that it could only be her daughter. The girl turned a Liz disappeared from view, another figure entering the frame.
Max reeled back in shock and chocked heavily on the air he laboured to breathe.
He watched himself gaze lovingly down at Liz's daughter.
'Daddy, will you tell me the story of Repunzle again tonight?' the girl asks. He nods and says we will
Daddy?! Max's mind scrambled for an explanation, stumbling and falling each time. Daddy?!
His hologram self pulls the child up into his arms and holds her in a tight embrace. Liz moves towards them both, resting her head contentedly on his shoulder.
Suddenly the image flickers and dies but that is not the end ...
The hologram is left running blankly for a moment and then Liz enters the frame once again. But there are differences in this Liz. She has short cut hair and dark rings under her eyes, everything about her is different.
... Except her eyes. It is not that her eyes have remained the same, but that Max can identify them as being eyes that have seen horrors untold, just as his own have.
Liz speaks in a short hurried tone, with a desperation lingering in her voice.
Max, this is the year 2014 and I'm standing in the Granolith chamber. I have just sent you - the you as I know you - back into our history so that the horrors we have witnessed may be remedied.
She pauses here as a deep grumbling and the sound of screaming subsides. The walls shake and crumble slightly.
Max, I don't have much time. We are almost defeated. Serena has given her life so that I might have this opportunity.
Max, it's imperative that you know this. If you are listening to this now then the future has been changed and your former self has managed to make me- or at least, my 18-year-old self – get you to fall out of love with me and make Tess stay. I don't know if your future is better than it is now ...
She hesitates and tears streak down her face ...
I know that in your future I will be without you and my heart screams that it must be worse. But my mind knows that any future is better than this one.
She wipes angrily at the tears and continues.
What you have just seen is a memory of mine. Of our life as it was before this war. We had a daughter named Claudia and we were very happy ... I am going against everything people have advised me but I cannot bare the thought that in some other time you might hate me, as I know hate is the only thing that would overcome our love and therefore you must.
The roof of the chamber collapses and for one awful moment Liz falls and does not rise. Suddenly her figure reemerges. She is cut and bruised and sobbing.
Max, our daughter and all our friends and family were killed because of our love ...we couldn't let it happen, which is why we take this risk ...
I have to go now. I will always love you, in this lifetime and all others ...Goodbye.
The hologram is now lifeless and Max's ring has stopped its steady pulse, the light no longer shining in its depths.
Max cannot think but he knows inherently what he must do ... he will travel to Earth and find the answers he deserves. For him and for Liz and for their little girl, Claudia.
T.B.C.
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